I'm Doing It Wrong

[ccurran12]

Hi everyone,

I've been force carbing my beer for a little while and I keep having the same problem. My beer gets super foamy. I have 5 foot tubing, and my beer is at 36 degrees. As I look through the forum I read that others put the carbonation up to 25 or 30 psi and then shut off the cylinder. Is that the best way to avoid over carbing? I've always left my cylinder on which I think is over carbing the beer and causing the foaming. Anyone have any suggestions? Should I be turning my cylinder off in order to keep the beer from over carbing or is there another issue that I am having? Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Eugenio]

I have very little experience kegging,just started myself, but from what ive been reading your beer line should be around 10' long, and you should be dispensing around 12 psi. I imagine dispensing beer at 30psi with 5' length would create a lot of foam.

On my first keg I have 10' lines and they are working well. I have also been doing the set it and forget it method, where I just set it at 12 psi and let it sit for 2 weeks.

 

[kh54s10]

Burst carbonate for a day or two at 30 lbs. Release the excess pressure then set to serving pressure - about 10 PSI. A 5 foot line may be a problem. I have 10' lines to my faucets.

 

[V-Fib]

I just set it and forget it at 10psi, it takes about a week or 2 to be fully carbed. My lines are the factory ones that are about 5'.

There are calculators online you can use to find out what PSI you should set to reach specific carb levels.

 

[Homercidal]

Check your line diameter. I believe 3/16" is the standard. Larger diameter reduces pressure and allows the beer to foam more. I'd recommend 10-12' of it. Too much can be trimmed back, but really just causes a slightly slower pour.

 

[mongoose33]

There are two issues here--one is whether you're overcarbonating, and the other is whether your system is properly balanced.

There are many approaches to force carbing; mine is to crash the beer to 32 degrees, put the beer on the gas at 35psi for 20-24 hours, shut off the gas, purge the headspace of the excess pressure, then reconnecting the gas at serving pressure, say 10psi or so.

That always gets me very close.

If you make the mistake of leaving it on the pressure for much longer than that, your beer will be overcarbonated. The only way to deal with that is to keep releasing pressure and letting the headspace re-equilibriate, until you get to a level you like. An alternative, depending on how much the beer is overcarbed, is to simply release the PRV for a couple hours and see how that does, rinse and repeat.

The other issue is length of line--others have covered that well above. The easy solution for the most part is 3/16 ID serving lines.

 

[ericbw]

Mongoose has it. First, google about balancing the system. Everyone's set up will be a little different, based on how high the beer has to rise from the keg to the tap, the temperature, line lengths, etc.

You can't really change the rise, and the temp is based on your preference. The amount of CO2 is also kind of fixed (how many volumes for a style of beer), so the real factor you can change is the line length.

I get the best results with leaving the gas at serving pressure (~12psi) for 2 weeks. I can carbonate faster, but it tastes better after 2 weeks anyway.

 

[seatazzz]

I have 8' lines, and here's how I carb: once the beer is in the keg, it sits in the kegerator overnight to chill after purging the headspace with c02. In the morning, I crank the gas as high as it will go (24 on my regulator), purge once, then leave it for a few hours. That day, every couple of hours (or more if I'm pulling a pint off the other keg anyway) I purge the gas and listen for the gurgle gurgle gurgle. I should also note I reverse the QD's so that I am pushing c02 into the keg from the OUT post; MAKE SURE YOU SWITCH THE QD'S BEFORE DOING THIS or they will get stuck. The next morning I purge it one more time, leave it for about 30 minutes, then switch the QD's back, lower the regulator to about 8psi, and pull a pint. With very few exceptions (under-full keg, someone unplugged the kegerator, aliens) by that time the beer is fully carbed and ready to drink. This is a variation on the "shake 'n' purge" method which I have tried, with not much success and a LOT of foam. If I have two kegs in the kegerator (the one I'm carbing and a fully carbed one) I just turn the valve off on the carbed one while the new one is getting carbed. There's usually enough c02 in that keg that I can pour off of it without any serving pressure applied.